FAVORITE FINDS

I have a habit of coming home from estate sales with items that initially I think that I might be able to resell, but on occasion, I actually do find some items that appeal so much to me that I end up not selling them after all, but actually keep. Recently that has happened with two items in particular. The first is a very large cone of 100% cotton string. It's bright white and super soft. I initially grabbed it (getting some chuckling from my aunt about carrying around a cone of string) because I knew the cost of cotton has been on the rise. I determined that there might be someone out there who would be able to use it to crochet something out of. Well it really didn't take more than a day before I decided, you know what I really want to keep that. It's a good thing I did, because a few weeks later I began cutting up vintage sheets into quarter flat bundles. I was trying to figure out how to tie them up when I remembered the cone of string. It was a very nice a-ha moment, as it felt like the universe had lined things up so perfectly. I like the simplicity of the look. Don't you?

Then there was this little guy! On a whim, mums and I took a ride to an estate sale that had a rare Sunday opening. We got there, and the house had very little in it, and what it did was marked so amazingly high, that when we did leave we were attempting to determine how the sale could actually survive a run until the next Tuesday. I didn't find much, but what I did find were small treasures, and they were actually inexpensive, as if the people who marked them weren't interested in them at all. This Japanese Plum Wine Bottle below was one of those overlooked items. It was fifthly!! The wine had been spilled down the front of the bottle, and had sealed the cap shut. It must have been like that for years because it took a few good soaks to get it clean. The cork cap was also so rotted that it crumpled away. I recognized what it was instantly and determined that at only $1.00 I could certainly attempt at least to clean him up a bit. In the end I was not disappointed, and he is now happily housed in my collection of Japanese Kokeshi. He may only be a bottle and cup, but I felt he certainly had earned the right to be on display in better attire. What are some of your favorite finds?